Free eBook – Carson: The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God

Don Carson is one of the greats of the modern church and it’s hard to think of any of his books and other writing that ought not to be thoroughly recommended. Monergism have a great starter list here.

One of Carson’s books that I think is a must-read is “The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God”. Of particular use is his third chapter “God’s Love and God’s Sovereignty”. I’ve not read a better apologetic for the sovereignty of God in salvation against the claim that it is “not loving” than Carson’s. So struck was I by it that Carson must take the blame for our first child, a girl, being named “Charis” (the greek word for grace). For Jacqui and I it was clear that God’s sovereignty in giving us a child (and all the more given the difficult circumstances we were going through at the time) was indistiguishable from His love for us. Put another way, God exercised His love for us in sovereignly bringing circumstances about the way He chose. For us there was no other name fitting for this child of God’s sovereignty than to name her “grace”.